2024.Sneezes.Wrapped

This, like everything else, is late. Sneezes from 2024!

Here’s January: 113
February: 76
March: 95
April: 76
May: 87
June: 63
July: 57
August: 66
September: 97
October: 76
November: 111
December: 102

Total for the year: 1019 achoos.

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2023: 933
2022: 837
2021: 714
2020: 796

Five years doing this dumb shit: 4,299 sneezes.
That's 2.35 sneezes per day – which confirms my initial estimate that I sneeze around twice a day.

Yep....

終

2024.Random.Phrases

This list, which I've now continued for five years, is my favorite thing I do all year, aside from cycle and keep living – and I'm not overly sure about the living part....

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Less but immediate
More a contract than a star
Though they come nothing near
Often and often (ie, “again and again”)
An over-early buckling toward them
Supplying the only means for warmth or cookery
Eyes long dimmed by weeping
In the glad buoyancy of her youth
Kept me rigidly to the desk
The far-off hum of the coming multitude
The reality of blood
A lowering, heavy morning, overcast with clouds
Descry the lineaments
The ruffian jest
The very essence of our old nobility
The first misfortune of their house
The price of rice and the want of rain
With epithets most disrespectful to royalty
The tight focus of trauma
Adolf’s polyp
Sharp curves
Gossiping on doorsteps never swept
Get the old ashes hauled (ie, get banged)
The Philip Morris midget
Americans—“a confounding people”
Go the whole figure
Lax with the perpetrators and strict with the victims
All the prisons, very interesting and very horrible
Chequer the monotony
Flamboyant hats and facial hair
The Denver Problem
Condense and Summarize
A cactus of cilantro
Thunderstruck and stunned
In front of the big public
Stolen in South America
The supper I’m forever assembling
A postdoctoral researcher in comparative bioacoustics at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
Particleboard rectangle
Censor erratically / censor comprehensively
Already authorized, or at least proposed
To throng the gay gardens
Accorded better with my intention
To the buildings undermined
The rich darkness of the nearest distance
To circumcycle London
Started for Dorking
Routes and put to flight
The mounted armies of Europe
Of hills long to climb and short to coast
Easier to miss than to find
Thickly crusted with age, weather-stained, towered and battlemented
The golden glamour of first impressions
Frighten into idiocy
Aggressively suburban
Intervals of madness
Suffered roughly at the washboard
Abuse disguised as education
Face management
Both curative and preventive
Large trees and low plants
The surface of the ground
Contains tobacco depictions
To say my humble say
Which, being far from books, I quote from memory
The mulcting under the verdict
Glee club of the damned
No shit, no roses
Different sources, different claims
A sincere and stupid belief
Perpetually aggrieved
Ill versed in the amenities of life
Aggressive underwear
Hot Pocket juice
Slightly feudal insults
Door-to-door bug assassin
Daily gapao
Open biology
It’s all subtle and submarine
Ungainly hoards of memorabilia advertised as “museums”
Tight but loping
Not so much present as remembered
The North remembers
No hugs, no handshakes; please leave me alone
Tell me why cry? / Tell me why? Chainsaw Blood
This is of an unprecedented gravity
Another room waiting for its literature
Entourages of azures and clouds
People are willing to scroll
Badger the badgeless
Life to us was worth ten heavens
The coach was squirming with youngsters
The hubris and the hackery
Leavings and learnings
Not best pleased
The Great Awokening
A trajectory toward genocide
Elite capture
A talented man of great refinement
French-speaking Hells Angels
Synthetically fancy
Punch-shot my nuts into my cranium
The Hubble tension
The local distance ladder/cosmic distance ladder
A pain in the cheese
Not my circus, not my monkeys
Insistent throb
Not a ton of it, but enough of it
Società Italiana Prodotti Esplodenti (Italian Society of Explosive Products)
A burning desire to witness phenomena up close
The human eye’s persistence of vision
The irresponsible balminess of Spring
Freely breathed the air of peace
The Burning House of worldly suffering
A cup by someone crushed
Started as a favor and turned into an intervention
A riot of sunlight
Unadorned bologna sandwich
Crushing percussion
Regard one another with mutual suspicion and malice
Put him on the first thing smoking
It was subtle, but it was spotted
It’s foaming at the tree
Imagine an urban beaver
The shitter-shatter of the maidens
The potbelly of presiding judges
To juggle the live ammo of words
Obnoxious, unsupportive, and cold
Immortal plus invincible
The Fiona Event
Main colon
Morbid hyperverbosity
System of dates and memories
Traditional Godzilla Violence
Cads, colonizers, and crazies
Butts to nuts (ie, crowded)

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Here are 2023's, 2022's, 2021's, and 2020's.

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2024.December.Watched

PHO-GSW (MacBook)
You Bet Your Life #53-23 (Feb 18, 1954) (MacBook)
You Bet Your Life #59-32 (Apr 28, 1960) (MacBook)
MIN-GSW (MacBook)
Silo (S02E03) (TV)
Shrinking (S02E07-08) (TV)
GSW-HOU (MacBook)
The Holiday (TV)
GSW-MIN (MacBook)
Beat the Devil (MacBook)
Silo (S02E04) (TV)
Shrinking (S02E09-10) (TV)
Happy Christmas (TV)
Black Doves (S01E01-03) (MacBook)
John Mulaney Presents Everybody’s in LA (S01E01) (MacBook)
Black Doves (S01E04) (MacBook)
John Mulaney Presents Everybody’s in LA (S01E02) (MacBook)
Silo (S02E05) (TV)
Shrinking (S02E11) (TV)
Black Doves (S01E06) (MacBook)
A Charlie Brown Christmas (TV)
GSW-Min (MacBook)
Penguin (S01E02-08) (MacBook)
Silo (S02E06) (TV)
Shrinking (S02E12) (TV)
Silo (S02E07) (TV)
Biloxi Blues (TV)
GSW–PHO (MacBook)
Black Doves (S01E01-02) (TV)

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39 titles for the month

Long.Time.Gone

I intended to post this a couple/three weeks ago, on the 44th anniversary of John Lennon's murder, and the 20th anniversary of posting, basically, this exact message on that previously-mentioned, old-ass blog:

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I could point to where I was when I heard some guy on the radio say John Lennon was dead. We - my father, mother, & sister - were in our car, just a few hundred feet from home. Lennon was killed at night, so it must have been the next day, and my parents must have already known. The sun was shining, but fading, like it was early-evening, or late-afternoon. We were in our (piece of Scheiße) tan Chevette. I was in the back, but I cannot recall which seat. After the announcer finished talking, I leaned forward, utterly confused, and aksed, "He might come back to life?" I cannot recall what the man said, but it must have been some kind of stupid joke or some kind of pseudo-religious babble, perhaps making fun of Lennon's Hindu phase, or something: Lennon was now gone forever - unless he's resurrected. Whatever was said, my parents didn't find it entertaining, and they quickly dismissed the DJ (and changed the channel) when they answered my question.

I still cannot think of Lennon's assassination without seeing the road ahead of us out of the windshield of that Chevy, and thru my abject confusion about how the fucking hell something could be alive again after dying.

I was 17.

No, I'm kidding. I was 3.

終

LLM.Oh.Pee

My main issue with ChatGPT-like LLMs, is I never think of ways to use them, ways they can help me. Today, I thought to ask Claude how it can help. (ChatGPT’s Mac app crashes on launch for me, so I’ll use Claude until that stops – I assume it's a MacOS-beta issue, but we’ll see.) Here’s what it said in reply to my prompt: What kinds of things can Claude help me with? Give me a comprehensive list.:

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I can help you with a wide variety of tasks across many domains:

Writing and Communication:

  • Drafting emails, letters, and professional communications
  • Editing and proofreading documents
  • Creative writing (stories, poetry, scripts)
  • Academic and research writing
  • Writing in multiple languages
  • Brainstorming ideas and outlines
  • Providing writing suggestions and feedback

Analysis and Research:

  • Summarizing complex texts
  • Breaking down research papers
  • Providing insights and interpretations
  • Helping with literature reviews
  • Analyzing data and trends
  • Comparative analysis
  • Critical thinking and argument evaluation

Coding and Technical Support:

  • Writing code in multiple programming languages
  • Debugging code
  • Explaining programming concepts
  • Helping with algorithm design
  • Creating software architecture diagrams
  • Providing technical documentation
  • Offering coding best practices and design patterns

Math and Problem Solving:

  • Solving mathematical problems
  • Step-by-step math explanations
  • Statistical analysis
  • Data interpretation
  • Mathematical proofs
  • Algebra, calculus, geometry, and more

Education and Learning:

  • Explaining complex concepts
  • Answering academic questions
  • Helping with study strategies
  • Creating study guides
  • Breaking down difficult topics
  • Providing learning resources and explanations

Business and Professional Tasks:

  • Business plan development
  • Market research
  • Strategic planning
  • Resume and cover letter writing
  • Interview preparation
  • Business communication
  • Product descriptions

Creative Tasks:

  • Generating creative ideas
  • Brainstorming sessions
  • Storytelling
  • Character development
  • World-building
  • Naming and naming conventions

Language Support:

  • Translation assistance
  • Language learning help
  • Grammar explanations
  • Vocabulary expansion
  • Writing in multiple languages
  • Language style and tone guidance

Personal Assistance:

  • Meal planning
  • Travel planning
  • Gift ideas
  • Personal goal setting
  • Decision-making frameworks
  • Productivity advice
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I dunno shit about using the Terminal, but I’m halfway thru creating/setting up that empty-the-trash script. If it works, hey, that’s something!...

終

The.Köln.Revelations

This YouTube video, about Keith Jarrett's "The Köln Concert", answers and explains a few questions I've passively had about its recording, but I'd just unconciously explained away as part of the nature of improvisation, if you get my meaning. When rules are set aside in order to just play, to just flow, then anything is fair game – including (but not limited to) using the piano itself as a drum in some places.

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I'm certain that my dad, who loved this album so much he named me after the pianist, did not know most of what happened around its recording, and I wish I could tell him.

終

2024.November.Watched

GSW-NOP (MacBook)
Silo (S01E07-10) (TV)
Shrinking (S02E03) (TV)
GSW-HOU (MacBook)
DAL-ORL (MacBook)
Body Double (TV)
Chernobyl (S01E01) (TV) Shrinking (S02E05) (TV)
Born Yesterday (MacBook)
Nate Bargatze: Full Time Magic (MacBook)
GSW-DAL (MacBook)
My Old Ass (MacBook)
Django Unchained (MacBook)
Shrinking (S02E06) (TV)
GSW-MEM (MacBook)
Silo (S02E01) (TV)
Nate Bargatze: The Tennessee Kid (MacBook)
LAC-GSW (MacBook)
When You Finish Saving the World (MacBook)
SuperBob (MacBook)
The Menu (MacBook)
Shrinking (S02E07) (TV)
Silo (S02E02) (TV)
Penguin (01E01) (TV)
Hannah Waddingham: Home for Christmas (TV)
Kansas City Confidential (MacBook)
Scarface (MacBook)
Detour (MacBook)
Japanese TV show about Nikon (TV)
Silo (S02E03) (TV)

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33 titles.

A Larry Bird number of titles.

終

2024.October.Watched

Wolfs (iPad)
Bad Monkey (S01E06) (MacBook)
Cisco Pike (MacBook)
Warriors-Clippers (pre-season) (MacBook)
Warriors-Kings (pre-season) (MacBook)
The Shrink Next Door (S01E01-08) (MacBook)
LAD-NYM (Game 1, NLCS) (iPhone)
GSW-DET (pre-season) (MacBook)
GSW-LAL (pre-season) (MacBook)
LAD-NYM (Game 3, NLCS) (iPhone)
LAD-NYM (Game 4, NLCS) (iPhone)
Shrinking (S01E10) (TV)
Shrinking (S02E01-02) (TV)
NYY-CLE (Game 5, ALCS) (iPhone)
Shrinking (S02E03) (TV)
Silo (S01E01) (TV)
GSW-LAL (pre-season) (MacBook)
LAD-NYM (Game 6, NLCS) (iPhone)
Too Late for Tears (MacBook)
LAD-NYY (World Series, Game 1) (iPhone)
DAL-SAS (MacBook)
Silo (S01E02) (TV)
LAD-NYY (World Series, Game 2) (iPhone)
Silo (S01E03-06) (TV) GSW-UTA (MacBook)
LAD-NYY (World Series, Game 3) (iPhone)
LAD-NYY (World Series, Game 3) (iPhone)
John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (MacBook)
GSW-NOP (MacBook)

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35 titles.

終